Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sam]

Audio Format
I'm sure this is a newbie question, but I have to ask...  It's great that MJ8 handles so many different recording formats, but which one should I use?  Ideally, there'd be a simple answer, but I'd be happy with a link to a heated debate on some discussion board.

Replace RealPlayer?
I was hopeful that MJ8 could replace RealPlayer.  I set MJ8 as the default for all audio files, including the Real Media formats.  I then uninstalled RealPlayer, expecting that the next time I clicked on a CD track on Amazon.com, MJ8 would pop up and handle the audio sample.  Instead, I got a message saying that I don't have the latest version of RealPlayer, and offering to let me download it...  Is it possible to have a Real-free PC without giving up functionality on some websites?

Artist/Genre Table
The genre field has so much potential, but I don't use it much because it's so inconsistent.  I'd love to see some master table that maps artists to genres.  E.g., Billy Joel/Rock, Willie Nelson/Country, etc.  There are no standards today (I think), and effort to clean that up in my own library will be wasted when I use CDDB data that rely on different mappings.  I'd be happy to disregard artists who cross over multiple categories.  Could this be a new tool for MJ?

Playlist Market
It's great that I have so much control over what music I listen to, but sometimes, I don't want to spend lots of time thinking about it.  I'd love to be able to import other people's playlists and play the matching songs from my library (of course, skipping the songs I don't have).  Putting together playlists is the function that radio stations own today, but I think that MJ could change that.

[lise]

Re: "Artist/Genre Table"
I use "All Music Guide" (AMG), the best on-line music resource, to determine the genre in my database.  I also include their styles.  In my comment field, I type in all styles or subgenres (country-rock, alt-rock, etc).  THen, when I'm in the mood for "pub-rock" I just search for it in the comment field and voila.

AMG:  http://www.allmusic.com/
It's also accessible from within MJ.  Expand the "Playing Now" item in the tree, and select "Artist Info".

[AlonsoN]

Good questions from a noob.  Some quick answers.

Format: Audio files come in two general variaties, lossless and lossy.  lossless means that all the data from the source (CD) is preserved.  .wav and .ape are examples.  .wav files run about 10mb/minute  .ape (Monkeys Audio) files a little less than half that, also the standard supports tags to describe the file contents.  Lossy formats, like .mp3, .oog, Real, Windows Audio, etc. are smaller, say .5 to 2mb/minute at the expense of some data.  Generally .mp3 files with a bitrate above 128 are considered listenable.

RealPlayer.  MJ, and any other player that can play real (.ra, etc) files uses teh RP install to decode.  You can minimize the impact by uninstalling RealOne, etc, getting and installing RealPlayer8.  There are some recent threads that go into more detail.  Real does stink, but you can cover it up some.

Playlist Market.  Cool idea.

[Sam]

Thanks for the tip on AMG.  It looks pretty comprehensive.  Is there a way to automate the tagging of genres?

And of the "lossy" formats, which should I use?  What formats do other people use?

[ChicoSelfs]

WMA @ 128 Kbps or i advice ogg @ 160 Kbps

[Chico]

Welcome Sam_,

MP3 still seems to be the popular choice for most of the listenning public, though APE and OGG are gaining popularity.  The answer to your question of what format to use is largely dependent on several factors.  How much disk space are you willing to sacrifice for the audio quality, what will you be using the files for (external, portable players, ect...), your preference.  If you are an avid audiophile with a lot of HD space, you may want to consider going with APE or a high bitrate MP3 or OGG.  I will often find myself ripping tunes that I really like at high bitrates, but others in my collection get the standard mp3 at 128bps.  If you will be using the files for a portable mp3 player, then you have to consider the storage capacity of the device and the supported file formats.
Some people here seem to have a preference for WMA and mp3Pro.  Again, it depends on what you want out of your files.

Hope that helps ya.